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The printable May calendar page is here, brought to you with the support of my patrons (and if you’d like to toss a few coins in the hat, they are always welcome and keep the calendar happening: Patreon (ongoing); paypal.me (one-off)). And also by a few episodes of This Podcast Will Kill You.

I’m not sure yet if the bilby was a marsupial too far, but I’m quite pleased by its rocking approach to playing the lute. And I do like the idea of bats swaying in the branches, playing their ukuleles at sunset.

Anyway, this is a trifle sillier than usual, but it’s my birthday month, so why not have a snake playing a lagerphone?

The images below link to full-size .jpg files that you can print at home: pre-coloured, or to colour yourself.

Tor.com have bought my Australian Gothic novella Flyaway! I’m so excited to be working with them on this. It was the subject of my MPhil (Master of Philosophy) research (oh, and I’ve finished the degree, and have the certificate!) and soon(ish — next year) it will be out in the world as a real book, oh my goodness.

Like this:

The April calendar is here, in printable coloured, greenish and to-colour-yourself formats (see the end of the post). It is brought to you, as ever, with the invaluable support of my wonderful patrons over on Patreon.com/tanaudel.

This began as a series of ideas about transformation. “Snow White and Rose Red” was briefly the leading fairy tale in my mind, which is how the bears got in. But roses mean “Beauty and the Beast”, and then the hinted tales began wandering further afield.

Here’s a quick glimpse at the process. I’m playing around with these negative silhouettes at the moment.

Then scanned, arranged and coloured on the computer, and bears, everywhere.

The downloadable files, for you to print at home and use for the April calendar, are below. And if you’d like to support the calendar, and see more behind the scenes, please do consider supporting them through Patreon.

This is a banner illustration I drew for Cassandra Clare’s Queen of Air and Darkness, the final novel in her Shadowhunters trilogy, The Dark Artifices.

It was of course a lot of fun (mitred corners!), but also an interesting challenge to do an illustration of an object that contains an illustration by a character, which is itself in a different medium (and not the first such Shadowhunters illustration I’ve done, either!). But there is a reason, after all, that I love sketching in art galleries.

I was also able to drop into the Simon & Schuster offices and admire paperstock. Shout-out here to Art Directors Russell Gordon (now of 1000 Jars) and Nicholas Sciacca, who have been a delight to work with.

Finally, here is a glimpse at the process behind it: rough positioning and ideas in my notebook; pencil layouts and different treatments; test for a woodcut effect in scratchboard; pen and ink tests.

So these are all the calendar pages from 2018, made with the support of (and released early to) patrons on patreon.com/tanaudel (should you care to join…:)

My personal favourites (as calendar patterns) are currently the selkies (May), sacred deer (August), and ships with seamonsters (December). But I’m rather fond of the stories hidden in July (walking characters) and October (Gothic). And Goldberry’s shoe. And the spotty cat. And swans in sweaters…